2024-02-12 10:35:00
Maxime Prévot wears several hats. He is mayor of Namur, federal deputy, president of the Engagés, father of a family and loving husband. With his wife Nathalie, he agreed to lift the veil on the way their daily life is arranged.
For how long have you been together ?
Maxime Prévot: “Twelve years. Married for five years. But, we’ve known each other since high school. We were at boarding school in Malonne where we were already very good friends at the time. Which meant that after secondary school, we continued to keep in touch. For the record, when she got married for the first time, I even had the pleasure of giving a speech at her wedding.”
Does this mean you are the same age?
Nathalie: “I’m a year older.”
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What attracted you to Maxime? Is this his political commitment?
N: “No (laughs). It’s his personality. I am very attracted to intelligent men. And then Maxime has great humanity. He loves people very much. I’m quite proud of him for his determined spirit.”
M: “My wife is a political supporter because she knows that it means a lot to me. But I think the day I tell her I’m stopping, she’ll be very happy too. It was not the political side that was the driving force behind our meeting.”
N: “Anyway, I met him before he was even in politics since we were already friends.”
Mayor, party president, federal deputy… Is it complicated to live with someone who has a very busy political agenda?
N: “I’m not going to say the opposite. The most difficult thing is still his absences. But we managed to find a balance for family, for meetings or for meals with friends.”
Are there sacred hours when it is forbidden to engage in politics?
N: “No.”
M: “Politics vampirizes you. When you have local functions as mayor, it’s non-stop, including nights and weekends. Even during the holidays, the news continues. When you are party president, you have to stay informed of the major issues to see whether you should react or not. When we go out to eat with friends or when we are at home, we can take a little break, but having real moments off is not possible.”
Maxime Prévot and his wife Nathalie in Paris. ©DR
Do you have children?
M: “Yes, not together. We are a blended family like thousands of others. I have a sixteen-year-old daughter, Valentine, and Nathalie has two children.”
N: “Emilien, who is 19 years old and Lucie 17 years old.”
M: “We are very proud of our family. Like all families who have been faced with separations, there is the need to rebuild a new family nucleus, with the management of alternating custody, the management of relationships with exes, the ability to build something super exciting too. And like all families, there were ups and downs.”
Do you draw inspiration from your personal life for your work in politics?
M: “Single parents, the issues linked to blended families are elements that speak to me all the more because we have experienced them. Just like the process of moving on from school and weeks off. The private experience too, since I started in the private sector. Nathalie is involved in the private sector, she is a company auditor. We inevitably have in political action that I can give life experiences that can guide our outlook. Which also allows me to stay with my feet in the clay.”
It’s an expression you like. This isn’t the first time you’ve used it.
N: “Max is a big fan of little expressions like that.”
What is the expression he uses the most at home?
N: “’Adventure and nature’ during our vacation.”
M: “I have a little Gaston side, as the children nicknamed me for a while. When you book a vacation, there’s always something wrong that happens. The only way I’ve been able to get out of trouble so far is to tell them: ‘Adventure and nature!’”
If you should describe the other in three words. What would these three words be?
N: “Max is someone of great intelligence. I am often impressed by how much he manages to remember. He is often the one children turn to when they have questions. I also like his human side. What stands out very strongly about Maxime is his determination.”
Maxime Prevot and his wife Nathalie: “We managed to find a balance” ©Jean Luc Flemal
And you Maxime?
N : “Attention, hein !”
M: “I like Nathalie because she is a woman of temperament. I like women who have character. He is also a very sensitive person. Which is why I think she would never make it into politics. She couldn’t stand all these constant attacks on social media. He is also someone who is very attentive to others. She always puts others before herself.”
Who wakes up first at your house?
N: “Often it’s together.”
M: “As soon as one alarm goes off, it wakes up the other. Although Nath gets up at the first ring, while I like to hit a snooze.”
And to go to bed?
N: “I will sleep well before Maxime.”
M: “I come home later from my work day. And when this is the case, I don’t know how to go to bed straight away, I need to decompress. I watch a little TV to clear my head.”
N: “That’s also why we like getting up together in the morning. This is our time to discuss the different topics of the day.”
M: “It’s in the morning in the bathroom that we have the opportunity to take stock, synchronize calendars, talk about the children, determine who is going to pick up who…”
Are phones allowed in the bedroom?
N: “Maxime, yes, because he must be able to be called at any time, even in the middle of the night. This has already happened several times.”
Do we talk a lot about politics at home?
N: “We try to avoid. But when the children have questions, we talk about them.”
M: “I try not to bring home the difficulties I may have on certain issues. It’s not always easy when sometimes I’m preoccupied with a series of things and I lock myself in my cave, as my wife says.”
N: “Like many men.”
M: “To avoid that, in general, we don’t talk about politics to the masses, except when there is a subject, a current event. It happens that Nathalie is revolted by a piece of news and it is also very healthy for her to share it because she does it with a cash style. Nath is not going to have a bombastic style, she is not going to try to go easy on me.”
Is there no language at home?
N: “No, that’s for sure.”
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Were you already voting for Les Engagés before meeting Maxime?
N: “So to be honest, I even helped him put up his first posters. Filling envelopes and writing addresses by hand.”
M: “Nath does not come from a grassroots political background at all. But since we’ve known each other since high school… We had a small team of hot-potato 18-year-olds.”
N: “We were going to put up posters at night.”
At 18 already?
M: “My first campaign, I was 22 years old. But I started campaigning at 18.”
Was there a small humanist cell at the university?
M: “We weren’t in the same university. There were indeed humanist democrats on campus, but it was not through these structures that we campaigned, it was more with personal friends.”
Maxime Prévot and his wife Nathalie have known each other since high school. ©DR
The next nine months are going to be busy, with the elections.
N: “Oh yes…”
M: “I have already briefed her.”
Do you participate in the logistics of the campaign?
N: “Not anymore.”
M: “The best support she gives me is being able to be the pillar on which I can lean in terms of my private life. And then for managing the children. During this period, it is clear that I will be less present. So, now we have three teenagers, they know how to take care of themselves more than when I was campaigning and they were all under ten years old. It’s more comfortable now.”
And the children also accompany you?
M: “When they were younger, it happened. And then very quickly, we felt that we went from being interested, from being curious about coming with Dad, to being fed up with having to wait. For example, no one wants to come shopping with me in town anymore. It’s annoying for them to have to wait every time because every ten meters, I say hello, I’m accosted, I make a chat with one or the other. They managed to arrange appointments for me in stores. And finally, they now prefer to go with Nathalie or with friends.”
And you Nathalie, do you also have to “endure” these moments?
N: “Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother me. I like people. I understand that they are taking advantage of the moment to speak with him.”
And if Maxime were to stop politics, would you be happy?
N: “Hahaha… I wouldn’t be against it. But as long as he’s happy, that’s the most important thing. I find it normal, when we are in a relationship, to support the other in their passion.”
M: “It’s my passion and not hers and I’m lucky that she allows me to live it. But the day I stop, inevitably, all the constraints we have mentioned will partly disappear. It will be more pleasant to be present more regularly, to be able to normalize daily life, which we don’t have the opportunity to do.”
N: “You should know that at home, Maxime is a normal person. He’s the one who takes care of the shopping.”
M: “That’s sacred. I want to go shopping, I love it. It’s my domain. We initially tried to do it together, but I wandered around the aisles too much, I didn’t go fast enough for his liking, so we weren’t in the same rhythm for the races. And so conclusion, it’s me who does them on my own. Which gives me the opportunity every week to have additional contact on store shelves with citizens. People come into contact and by seeing me, they no longer jump on me every ten meters. It allows us to stay in tune with the realities of the citizens who challenge us.”
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